Session 6

Departing Camp Vengeance:  Day 11 started in the morning following the zombie attack the previous evening.  As the guards cleaned up the mess removing the bodies amidst the rain and mud, the party prepared to depart.  Cogar managed to sneak a forged letter on "behalf" of commander Niles Breakbone requesting an immediate replacement due to mental breakdown. 

Mike Tyson:  With today's goal to meet the great Saja N'baza for information, the party gathered themselves back into the canoes and headed back down the River Shosenstar.  Early in the day a friendly creature made a choice to join the party.  Given the name Mike Tyson after a vicious attack on the ear of Karn, Mike settled on being friends with Peter.  It immediately developed a strong dislike for Arlen and Karn..if only he had saved that birdseed instead of tossing it into the river.  Parrots do NOT like mayo on the its side.

Mbala:  By the middle of the 12th day, the adventurers were forced to abandon the boats and for the first time and head out on foot.  Without a solid reason (other than just being there), a decision was made to climb the steep trail up the top of a sheer plateau.  Eku warned of the danger....an evil that must be destroyed...and removed from the earth.  Half way up, Eku changed her mind, overwhelmed with fear (possible panic) bailed and refused to go with the party.

Finally reaching the top of the plateau, spectacular views on a sunny clear day gave sight to over 50 miles of Chult. Further areas were revealed including a crashed airship and some sort of floating rock in shape of heart.  More importantly, the ziggurat of Orlunga could be seen rising out of the jungle to northwest.

The stone steps emerged onto the top of the plateau beneath a once grand, but now decrepit wooden gateway. The gates that sealed this entrance were rotted away; only their rusted iron hinges and reinforcing bands remained. In their place were heaps of human skulls. Picked clean of all flesh and bleached white by the sun, they grinned from the roadway and down from atop towering mounds. 

In the decrepit ruined city, a figure appeared.  Shuffling slowly around the hut, hunched over in an animal-like posture, a human woman: impossibly old, crippled by arthritis, blinded by cataracts was spotted. Her dark face and bald pate were outlined with streaks of yellow clay suggesting the shape of a skull.  Altogether she probably had three functional teeth and her boobs hung down almost to her knees.  HOT.

Nanny PuPu's overwhelming welcome immediately made some of the party seem uncomfortable and unwilling to trust.  Questions of staying for dinner were dismissed with word of a prior visit by Artis Cimber a few days earlier.  The old bird did offer them to return to help her rid of the Pterafolk earning a treasure from her well.  Oh well.  In stark contrast, she was serious about the offer to help if someone should die along the journey.

  A character transformed by this ritual into the walking dead regains all its hit points and retains its statistics, except as noted here:

• The character is considered an undead, not a humanoid, and is subject to all effects that target undead. The character doesn't need to eat, drink, sleep, or breathe.
• The character's hit point maximum is reduced by 1d4 at dawn each day, representing the physical decay of the body. No spell or effect can halt or counteract this decay.
• If the character's hit point maximum drops to 0, the gemstone embedded in the character's forehead shatters, and the character becomes a corpse once more.

A character that is turned into the walking dead and later raised or resurrected loses all memory of being an undead creature, but it doesn't lose any levels or XP gained while it was undead.

Eku gets weird:  Confusion set in when Eku had a sudden change of heart and decided to pay the old lady a visit in middle of the night....to kill her!  Disagreement in the party only left Cogar to make the three hour journey back up the hill.  About six hours later the two returned only to have been disappointed to have not found her.

The journey to Orolunga:   The overland trek to Orolunga met with very little in terms of encounters except for the party being "hunted" by a pack of Veloceraptors.  For two days the group was on high alert as they could hear signalling calls just out of reach in the trees.

Showdown in the ruines:  Tired of being hunted Karn taunted the raptors to show themselves and end this thing.  Attacks came from all directions as the speedy reptiles viciously pounced attempting drag away party members. The bloody battle resulted in a few characters being dropped unconscious and carried off only to be stopped by the rest of the group.  Hideous raptor cries and calls haunted the party as a heavy rain fell on them.  Arlen spent most of the battle riding on "Clever Girl" while the rest of the party stuck together in a defensive circle.  After the fight, severed Raptor parts dangled from Karn's hand...

Orolunga:  Following a short rest, the party moved on to Orolunga.  "A massive brick and stone ziggurat rises from the jungle. Two staircases angle up and across the front face, one from the right, the other from the left, to meet at a landing on the second level 30 feet above your heads. That layout repeats on the second level, and the third level, but with each successive layer adding less height than the one below it. The fourth level, 60 feet above the jungle floor, is an enclosed shrine or temple, its walls adorned with labyrinth symbols."

"The jungle encroaches right up to and onto this ancient structure. The first flights of steps are choked with creepers, tree roots, and flowering vines. It might have been surrounded by a city long ago, but the jungle is so dense that it would take hours of searching to find buried foundations and tumbled stones." The ziggurat was protected by some kind of ancient magic which forced the party to enter through one set of steps.  Help from three Chwinga's and one pissed off parrot helped the party navigate the steps to the top.  Surprisingly, Cogar was not allowed to enter which especially left Johfra puzzled and suspicious.  

Saja, N'bazza:  The group met the mysterious Saja, being asked to speak truly since she was aware of their true nature.  The party learned: 
The naga knows through visions that Ras Nsi and his yuan-ti followers are scheming to end the world from their lair in Omu.  The naga knows that Omu lies between the Peaks of Flame and the Valley of Lost Honor, and she also knows it's sunken below the level of the surrounding jungle, so the best way to spot it will be from the air or from the nearest high ground.

The naga remembers Ras Nsi's first uprising, and she urges the characters to kill him both as punishment for his past atrocities and to prevent any possibility of a recurrence.

 Charm of Animal Conjuring. This charm allows you to cast the conjure animals spell (3rd-level version as an action. Once used three times, the charm vanishes from you.

Charm of Darkvision. This charm allows you to cast the darkvision spell as an action, no components required. Once used three times, the charm goes away.

Charm of Feather Falling. This charm grants you the benefits of a ring of feather falling. These benefits last for 10 days, after which the charm vanishes from you.

Charm of Heroism. This charm allows you to give yourself the benefit of a potion of heroism as an action. Once you do so, the charm vanishes from you.

Charm of Restoration. This charm has 6 charges. You can use an action to expend some of its charges to cast one of the following spells: greater restoration (4 charges) or lesser restoration (2 charges). Once all its charges have been expended, the charm vanishes from you.

Charm of the Slayer. One sword in your possession becomes a dragon slayer or giant slayer (DM's choice) for the next 9 days. The charm then vanishes from you and the weapon returns to normal.

Charm of Vitality. This charm allows you to give yourself the benefit of a potion of vitality as an action. Once you do so, the charm vanishes from you.

Until next time.......

This has been a TOT inc Production.....Fuck off.